Team Stats

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ERIE, Pa. - The Lake Erie men's basketball team beat Gannon
University for the second time at the Hammermill Center this
season, 66-61, on Monday (Feb. 15) night. The win extends the
Storm's winning streak to four as Lake Erie became the first team
since 1985-86 to win twice at the Hammermill Center in the same
season.

Sophomore forward Matt Grendel (Independence, Ohio/Independence)
paced the Storm (10-15) with a career-high 19 points to go along
with eight rebounds and a career-high five steals. He surpassed his
previous career high off 11 set on Saturday in a home win over
Urbana.

"We were struggling there on offense," Lake Erie head coach Cliff
Hunt said. "But if we share the ball, we can have different people
help us. Matt was the guy tonight."

He was an efficient 7-for-9 from the floor, including two
three-pointers for the Storm, which had trouble getting good looks
against a Gannon defense that leads the Pennsylvania State Athletic
Conference in points allowed.

The Storm and Golden Knights (11-12) fought through herky-jerky
first half that featured 16 total turnovers and 18 fouls. Gannon
led, 30-22, with two minutes left in the half, but Lake Erie closed
with a 8-1 run to trail just 31-30 at the break after Grendel hit
mid-range jumper with one second left.

The Storm shot just 32 percent (10-for-31) in the first stanza, and
while Gannon hit 46 percent (10-for-22), Lake Erie held a huge
advantage in rebounding, 24-11. The Storm grabbed 13 offensive
rebounds in the half and held a 10-2 advantage in second-chance
points.

The teams traded leads throughout the early parts of the second
half, but the Storm finally took control of the fast-paced game as
Ethan Bradshaw (Cincinnati, Ohio/Harmony Prep) and freshman guard
Alex Davis (Macedonia, Ohio/Nordonia) each hit a pair of
three-pointers in the second half. Bradshaw had 16 of his 18 in the
second half. He has 36 points in the last two second halves of
games, including the 77-68 win over Urbana on Saturday (Feb.
13).

"We come out with the mindset to win," Bradshaw said. "We feel we
can play with anybody."

The Storm has shown that this season, taking a pair of ranked teams
to the wire on the road, only to come up just two points short each
time. This time, against a historically prolific program, the Storm
pulled out the win.

"We've taken huge strides in the last several games for this
program," Hunt said. "This was a statement that we're going in the
right direction."

The Storm now has two road wins under its belt, both coming at the
Hammermill Center, where no team had beaten Gannon twice in the
same season since Cheney did it 24 years ago.

Lake Erie will play its final road game of the season on
Saturday (Feb. 20) at Ohio Dominican before returning home to play
No. 11 Indiana (Pa.) on Monday (Feb. 22) at 7 p.m.